Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 11/98) - The Eye Clinic in Yellowknife is in charge of eye tests across the entire North.

"I think we're the only service the hospital provides that sees the entire NWT. We're the only specialist service that goes into every single community," said Jane Magrum, clinic supervisor and a trained technician.

The clinic is contracted by the GNWT under the federal Non-insured Health Benefits Program to administer eye-care services for aboriginal residents.

The length of annual visits to each community is based on size -- one day for every 100 residents.

If a community has 800 status aboriginal people, the eye team would go in twice a year and stay for three or four days each trip.

They also have a contract with each regional health board to supply services to non-native Northerners based on the same formula.

For each visit, the clinic sends in a technician. The regional health boards have contracts with Northern optical firms to sell frames and fill prescriptions.

Magrum said the number of days in each community is enough for proper service. "People only really need their eyes checked a maximum of (every) two years," she said.

Problems occur for the eye team when people need glasses and the team is not coming in for another five months.

"If that happened to you in Whale Cove, for example, your only alternative would be to phone the optical company where you got your last glasses from and have them repeat. Or if they were salvageable, or if you broke one lens, you could mail them in and have it replaced," said Magrum.

To ensure that service is maintained at a reasonable level, the Yellowknife eye clinic has a unique eye-technician training program set up.

"As far as territorial government training programs go it's like the ultimate success story," said Magrum.

Recognized by the Canadian Medical Association, the diploma program is equivalent to a university degree program. It's a full two-year program and it trains people from the North to work in the North.

The program has been around since 1979 and was set up to service all Northern communities. Realizing a full-fledge ophthalmologist would not be practical in the North, the federal government looked to the military and hired a pair of eye technicians to service the North and train others to continue the work. Everyone at the clinic, with the exception of two, are now locally trained and from the North.

"We are super techs almost because we do a lot more than techs in the South do. We work at arms length from ophthalmologists, but ... we still have to be with ophthalmologists so we all work out of here," said Magrum.